ACCELERATED PROJECTS AND COMPANIES

2018 SPRING

ALDOGEN aims to develop and produce diagnostic kits for detection of common molecular markers in oncology and oncohematology. The products are developed for Real-Time PCR systems, fragmental analysis and sequencing. Along with classical molecular markers (chimeric transcripts, point mutations) we offer gene expression relapse markers in patients with acute leukemia. Besides we develop RNA stabilization buffers for the whole blood and tissues.

BENETE OY's Life Analytics Platform is developed to bring a novel set of data as the source of the Real World Evidence. Benete Platform will provide the data on the individual’s level of functioning. Adding this set of data as a part of the RWD will provide a very valuable insight into the individual’s life in the real-world setting and will give information on the efficacy and effectiveness of the drug treatments.

LS CANCERDIAG LTD is committed to reducing cancer mortality rates with a low-cost, simple diagnostic method that detects an inherited cancer-causing condition, Lynch syndrome, prior to cancer. Our vision is to see DiagMMR® as a new global testing standard in Lynch syndrome diagnostics.

The MINIHYPOXY team has developed a hypoxic cell culture solution that is an affordable, portable, highly accurate, physiological O2 cell study platform. The Minihypoxy platform is composed of a portable hypoxia instrument and cell cultivation consumables. In addition to the hypoxia instrument, the consumables can be used to maintain desired cell cultivation conditions in other cell research devices such as microscopes or devices for recording electrical activity of cells.

ENDOMET is a machine learning based diagnostic tool that provide risk assessment of endometriosis disease among women with abdominal pain symptoms. The tool supports decision making by the physicians by combining both clinical features and biomarker data. It also has a platform for self-evaluation, and can be used to predict disease recurrence by the physicians.

SpeED-Seq (Species-Specific Exome and DNA Sequencing) offers novel tools for efficient and cost-effective sequencing of genomes. Traditional Exome Sequencing technology requires de novo design and production of expensive custom probes, and it is practically impossible for species without reference genomes. SpeED-Seq enables affordable Exome Sequencing for any species with or without reference genomes and offers a tool to eliminate organelle genome contamination from DNA Sequencing projects contributing to 70 % of Next Generation Sequencing market.

2017 FALL

Afekta Technologies Ltd is a spinoff company established on May 2017 from the University of Eastern Finland. It focuses on providing biomedical analytical services, specifically metabolic profiling, which utilizes mass spectrometry to detect comprehensively up to thousands of metabolic features from any biological sample. Our team consists of four scientists who are also the co-founders of the company. Our potential clients include academic research institutes as well as food and pharma industry.

“FaCET” (Facial paralysis Clinical Entertainment-based Therapy) is a gamified Facial muscle Rehabilitation application, including machine learning, cloud data base and a specifically designed game controller device. The aim of the project is basically replacing the frustrating conventional rehabilitation with a more enjoyable and interactive method for the patients suffering from Facial Palsy, also processing the medical results and collecting them in a centralized database, in order to provide the authorized researchers all around the world with research information. This entertainment-based product encompasses various environments and scenarios which are designed to engage facial muscles in the game play using its game controller device.

Helppo Diagnostics OY was established in 2015 by three researchers from University of Helsinki. We are developing a new platform, which can be broadly used for drug candidates testing and drug discovery. The second company direction is in drug repositioning, that is approved drugs for new indications. Our current commercialization strategy is to protect intellectual property rights by patenting and to find partners and investors.

NeuroTracking - Better understanding of Parkinson’s disease with Electrical Activation of Muscles and Human Motion Analysis. IOT TECHNOLOGY. Parkinson’s is continually worsening disease. Mechanism is mystery, and it is defined based on symptoms, like motoric tremor. Symptoms can be treated by dopaminergic drug therapy or Deep Brain Stimulation. Picture of the symptoms formed during neurologist’s clinical visit (10-15min). At a later stage symptoms start to vary, even daily. No method to optimize treatment. Standard of living decreases, costs increases. We have the solution to find more accurate and effective treatment.

Diagnostic tests can provide accurate results very fast, and help to select the correct treatment for each patient. These medical tools are important because an early detection of the potential cause for disease, or the monitoring of body fluid components, helps to prevent serious health-related complications. Our team is focused in the development of a paper-based diagnostic system (PaDS) for an easy detection of glucose level in body fluids, without need of complementary electronic devices.

SHIBNESS aims to develop a new oral glucose-lowering medication for treating insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes by targeting lipid phosphatase SHIP2. Type 2 diabetes is a rapidly escalating problem and the current medications are not enough to stop the disease or have adverse effects. We have created a library of novel SHIP2 inhibitors that act as insulin sensitizers and are searching for potential commercialization routes for these new drug leads.

2017 SPRING

ADESANTE OY specializes in health care services based on virtual reality (VR) technology. Adesante's business is serving public and private health care organizations with a variety of VR related products in medical operations and its support functions. Adesante makes diagnostics data and 3D models easy to understand by visualizing in VR. An improved understanding of clinical imaging and modeling, speed of modeling and a quality decision making is for the best for the patient and makes health care more efficient.

CERENION OY (joined the Accelerator as project "BrainICU") develops the world’s first practical method for measuring the brain function of intensive care patients. Our Cerenion ART™ technology (pat. pend.) aims to reveal the status of the brain as one simple score – at the bed-side and without requiring any changes to the care of the patient. The solution works by combining state-of-the-art signal analysis technology with standard electroencephalogram (EEG) measurement and the common pharmacological compounds and clinical procedures already used in intensive care today. The technology has the potential of improving both the quality and the cost of intensive care.

CHAIN (Confining hospital acquired infections by peptide antibiotics)is a medical devices company (to be founded) in the field of preventive antibiotics and focuses on developing a novel peptide antibiotics coated catheters for prevention of urinary tract infections (UTIs). Catheter associated UTI (CAUTI) is the most prevalent hospital-acquired infection with an estimated infection rate of 25-40% in women. Coating urinary catheters with peptide antibiotics can effectively control CAUTI by preventing the spread of infection. CAUTIs are caused by several bacterial species, however Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae are the most recurrent casual organisms.

CUSTOMIZEDTHERAPIES creates a service concept for customised veterinary medicinal products. Individualised dosing by the CustomizedTherapies concept enabled by printing technologies will bring a disruptive approach and technology to create new service models and customized products for pharmacies and hospitals and will offer new solutions to point-of-care medication.

CUTOSENSE OY is specialised in developing wound measurement and treatment systems. CutoSense's soon published solution, the MC-Patch treatment system, is intended for assessment and treatment of hard-to-heal wounds. Our solution has been clinically tested in University Hospital of Tampere where results of the measurements were found to accurately describe the wound status thus reducing costly and painful dressing changes by at least 70%.

PATHWAY PILOT develops novel tools for contact-free cell manipulation. Diseases are typically caused by aberrant cell signalling. However, it is challenging to diagnose the actual defects in circuits and develop corrective drugs. Cellular optogenetics is a synthetic biology technology to investigate pathways in research or diagnostic settings, and can even streamline drug discovery. Our vision is to empower research and diagnostic labs with the latest optogenetic approaches to achieve a level of insight that could otherwise not be reached.

SARTAR THERAPEUTICS OY develops a novel targeted therapy for orphan cancer disease called gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST). The candidate product is based on a novel oncogene that is highly expressed in GIST, and repositioning and reformulation of an old drug that targets selectively the oncogene. The company works in pre-clinical and pharmaceutical development with CROs and aims to run early stage clinical trials in collaboration with a clinical CRO and the European GIST clinician network.

TRACERAY OY – established in April 2015 as a spin-off from the research activities at the University of Turku, currently focuses on designing and manufacturing of the novel intelligent bioactive implantable system for fracture treatment in small and large animals. The company’s technology allows the creation of a flexible fixation device with osteoinductive and antibacterial properties. The implantable system will be manufactured based on the materials extensively studied at the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University.